‘They’re still stuck in that Trudeau era view of the world, which would have garnered us maybe 15 to 20 seats across the country, and and they just can’t handle that.’ In the wake of Steven Guilbeault leaving cabinet, a senior government source told iPolitics that several other Trudeau-era Liberal MPs are also having challenges “coming to grips” to the...
First Nations chiefs voted unanimously Tuesday to press the government to uphold the oil tanker ban off the northern British Columbia coast and withdraw an agreement signed last week that clears a path for a new oil pipeline to the B.C. coast. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed a memorandum of understanding on Nov. 27 to...
Heritage Minister Marc Miller says his government needs to "sit down and start working now" on consultation with Indigenous people and stakeholders about a potential pipeline in B.C. On his way into a cabinet meeting this morning, the former minister of Crown-Indigenous relations told reporters he expects a difficult road ahead for any pipeline project.
Metis Settlements of Alberta president says project could help Metis communities achieve full sustainability. The Metis Settlements of Alberta say they’re interested in purchasing a stake in a proposed oil pipeline to the West Coast and want to work with First Nations in British Columbia who oppose the project and plan to bring forward an emergency resolution at the Assembly...
Mayor Patrick Brown said he has “consistently” checked with Brampton’s integrity commissioner “to ensure there is no conflict of interest.” A numbered company registered to Mayor Patrick Brown and his wife has bought two properties on Main Street in downtown Brampton at the city’s historic centre. The two adjoining storefronts, with restaurants on the ground level and apartments on the...
When Mark Carney became Prime Minister earlier this year, he promised a new way of governing. A leadership built on strategic discipline, clearer expectations, and a tighter focus across a sprawling federal system. Rather than issuing dozens of mandate letters, Carney set out a unified set of seven national priorities meant to guide every minister and every department. The message...
New public opinion polling data from the non-profit Angus Reid Institute – the first comprehensive, regional and national dive into political dynamics since last week’s announcement of a memorandum of understanding regarding a potential pipeline from Alberta to northwest British Columbia – shows that while Prime Minister Mark Carney lost a cabinet minister who disapproved of the MOU deeply, the...
For weeks now, rumours have circulated that Mark Carney could be doing a major shuffle of his cabinet before the end of this year. The shuffle that happened on Monday wasn’t the one people were talking about — or expecting.
They were among the few long faces at last Saturday evening’s annual Press Gallery Dinner. Stephen Guilbeault looked as though he had just lost his best friend. Green Party Elizabeth May looked as though she would break into tears. Guilbeault had resigned two days earlier from his job as heritage minister in the cabinet of Prime Minister Mark Carney over...
Culture Minister Marc Miller is expressing support for the removal of a religious exemption for hate speech in the Criminal Code. Miller, who chaired the justice committee until he rejoined cabinet Monday, says he doesn't believe people should be using religion to escape from prosecution for a hate crime. The Bloc Quebecois said in a press release Monday that the...
The NDP's interim leader says the Liberal government's reaction to a report it commissioned on pharmacare is shockingly dismissive and deeply disappointing. Don Davies was involved in negotiations on the Pharmacare Act last year, which was a key part of the supply-and-confidence deal between the NDP and the Liberals that supported the government of former prime minister Justin Trudeau.
Let’s face it, with 343 MPs in this Parliament and one Green Party seat, I had not imagined that any vote might be so tight that my single “yay” or “nay” could hold sway. Then, based on a combination of minority math and political machination, the knife-edge vote on Mark Carney’s first budget on November 17th came along and the...
If you listen to the noise coming out of British Columbia, rather than pay attention to what’s actually going on, you might conclude the province’s NDP government simply hates pipelines. A new line to the B.C. coast, they keep saying, is a terrible idea. It’s just a pipe dream, a “fantasy” in the words of Premier David Eby. Worse, the...
More than eight months have passed and it’s now safe to bring friends of Justin Trudeau back into the cabinet. Marc Miller was one of the Trudeau-era ministers tossed over the side of the ship of state when Mark Carney became prime minister, when the political imperative was making Canadians see his government as something new and different.
Danielle Smith was flying high last Thursday as she and Mark Carney signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in Calgary. Interesting that it was called an MOU and not an agreement, although most of the news media, and Smith herself, talked about it in those terms. So now Carney and Smith have an “understanding” that an oil pipeline may be...
You couldn’t have faulted Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for thinking she might receive something of a hero’s welcome at this weekend’s United Conservative Party convention. After all, she would be waving a freshly signed memorandum of understanding with Ottawa to build a new pipeline to the northwest coast of B.C. Sure, there were literally mountains to cross before it came...
Premier Danielle Smith faces an uphill battle with her own party, which appears to be increasingly untethered from Alberta’s current reality. The United Conservative Party annual general meeting was a fractious affair, marked by divisions over separatism and policy resolutions mired in the 1950s. Albertans would be wise to pay attention to those resolutions – they have a habit of...
Across Canada, at all times, we are an appropriately judgmental people when it comes to holding our political leaders accountable. This is particularly true when we think our leaders have failed us, disappointed us or misled us. Whether it is a municipal politician caught in a scandal, a provincial cabinet minister who makes a terrible decision, an opposition backbencher who...
It seems like a million years ago now, but do you remember the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership? It was signed between Canada and some Pacific nations plus the United Kingdom way back in that long-ago time of 2018. I remember being amused by it—not because of what was in the deal, but because of some of the...
What happens when a government survives a big test, but the country still feels stuck? That is where Canada finds itself today. The Carney government survived its first major budget vote and avoided a holiday election. On paper, that is a win. Our latest Abacus Data survey, conducted between Nov. 20 and 27 with 2,421 adults, shows the Liberals have...
Premier Danielle Smith is no dummy. She is well aware the pipeline deal she made with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Thursday would not be an easy sell but sell it she must. There are UCP voters and UCP members motivated enough to spend a couple of days at a political gabfest in Edmonton who have had it with Canada...
Premier Danielle Smith isn't personally challenged at this UCP convention, but still faces blowback from separatists and recall campaigns. Every United Conservative Party annual convention is odd in its own way, but this one is truly special. Article content Premier Danielle Smith faces pressure from separatists at the gathering in Edmonton this weekend. Recall campaigns are also a challenge for...
The CBC story landed with a thump on Monday afternoon: Prime Minister Mark Carney’s memorandum of understanding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, it suggested, would include a carve-out for her province on clean electricity regulations. Canadian Identity and Culture Minister Steven Guilbeault was stunned.
If, as the Liberals say, Pierre Poilivere is a terrible leader and the Conservatives are bankrupt of ideas, why does Prime Minister Mark Carney keep stealing them?
Basking in the glow of new-found friendship between Ottawa and Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith declared that this day would never have arrived if Justin Trudeau was still prime minister. “I can tell you 100 per cent that the former prime minister would never have moved this far on these issues,” Smith said, after she and Mark Carney unveiled a whole...
Former environment minister Steven Guilbeault has resigned from cabinet over the Carney government's memorandum of understanding with Alberta that sets a path for an oil pipeline to B.C.'s coast. The Power & Politics panel of party insiders discusses the politics around the deal and possible risks to Liberal seats.
Every so often a Canadian politician comes along and decides he or she is ready to challenge the orthodoxy. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was Saskatchewan Premier Tommy Douglas, who insisted that universal, publicly funded medical care was possible in Canada, despite strong opposition from health care providers, which culminated in a doctors’ strike.
I am starting to wonder if Mark Carney knows what he is doing. On Thursday, he met with Premier Danielle Smith in Calgary to sign a new agreement with Alberta, which includes federal support for a bitumen pipeline to northern British Columbia. On the surface, this is splendid news. It was good to see Smith and Carney working together on...
Before leaving for the recently held G20 in Johannesburg, Canada had laid out its priorities, for the summit: “improving critical mineral supply chains, using AI for sustainable development, preventing wildfires and natural disasters, reforming development funding and debt, and advancing gender equality through economic growth.” During a press conference at the summit, however, Prime Minister Carney explained to reporters that...
Analysts are always searching for “turning points”, “tipping points”, and “inflection points”. For me, February 2025 was such a moment. It was the month when the world we thought we understood was turned on its head. As the third anniversary of the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine approached, Ukraine was determined to have another General Assembly debate and a resolution...
There is a negotiation maxim widely heard in trade talks that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. By that measure nothing has been agreed between Ottawa and Alberta. Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wanted to make a show of signing a memorandum of understanding on energy and the environment, even though all the actual commitments...
Boom. Until this week, among the more reliable constants in Canadian politics were that the federal Liberals would oppose building any new pipelines to the B.C. coast (the Trans Mountain exception proving the rule); that Alberta’s United Conservatives would oppose any extension of carbon pricing (beyond what the province already had in place); and that the two governing parties, so...
Shortly after Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith formally signed their memorandum of understanding on Thursday, Smith joked to reporters in Calgary that she would love for "pipelines to be boring again." It's not clear that pipelines have ever been boring — they have been associated with political tumult in Canada for at least 70 years. And...
Liberal prime ministers aren’t supposed to get standing ovations in Calgary, much less from a room packed full of mostly-Conservative business leaders and provincial cabinet ministers who spent the better part of a decade honing their hatred of the Trudeau government. But Mark Carney, for better or worse — more on that in a moment — is clearly not your...
U.S. President Donald Trump’s monetary-policy monkeyshines are plumbing new depths. Mr. Trump has spent months calling Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell every name in the book, including “clown,” “nincompoop” and “major loser.” Now, his Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, is undermining Mr. Powell by stirring speculation about his possible successor.
OTTAWA -- The parliamentary budget office projects in a new analysis that Ottawa's new housing agency will fill only a small gap in the housing market.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith pointed to her advisers when asked to explain how an Edmonton businessman whose contracts with the province’s health agency are now under scrutiny ended up in a hotel suite with her top lieutenants on the night of the 2023 provincial election. A Globe and Mail investigation published over the weekend examined the links between medical supply...
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police is limiting the use of its 973 Chinese-made drones to non-sensitive operations, stating the devices present "high security risks, primarily due to their country of origin." Chinese drones make up about 80 per cent of the federal police force's fleet of 1,230 remotely piloted aircraft systems (RPAS), which are used to monitor the Canada-U.S. border...
Prime Minister Mark Carney will address hundreds of First Nations chiefs gathered in Ottawa today for the December meeting of the Assembly of First Nations. Carney's appearance before the chiefs could be a tense moment, coming just days after Ottawa signed a pipeline agreement with Alberta, which some First Nations leaders have condemned over a lack of consultation and environmental...
Environment minister suggests equivalency agreement with Alberta is in the works. Ottawa’s clean electricity regulations' days are numbered in Alberta, after Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed their memorandum of understanding last week. The federal government suspended the regulations meant to rein in Canada’s worst polluter, but it hasn’t explained how it is going to ensure...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says she wants to work with British Columbia on a potential new pipeline but still hopes to convince that province to lift the federal tanker ban. “I’m sensitive to the fact that we don’t want to see the entire coast of British Columbia, that has extensive port infrastructure. I understand that,” Smith told reporters in Calgary...
Treasury Board president Shafqat Ali on Monday denied having any knowledge about discussions to potentially order public servants to return to the office full time in 2027. Ali was responding to questions from reporters after the Canadian Association of Professional Employees president Nathan Prier wrote to Ali to ask about rumours of the impending change. "I'm hearing from news outlets...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says her United Conservative Party isn't a separatist party. Last week's historic energy deal between Alberta and Ottawa was met with skepticism, and at multiple points by boos, by members at the party's annual convention over the weekend. Leaders in the party's separatist camp, meanwhile, received standing ovations and raucous applause and a number of pro-separation...
A citizen-led petition affirming Alberta should remain part of Canada has been verified by elections officials and is now on its way to the legislature. In a statement, Elections Alberta says it accepts that more than 400,000 citizens signed the petition spearheaded by former provincial deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk. That exceeds the legally required minimum to force a plebiscite by...
Green Party leader Elizabeth May says supporting the Carney government on the budget vote is a "mistake" she won't make again. May told The Canadian Press the memorandum of understanding Prime Minister Mark Carney signed with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on energy -- specifically the part that applies federal tax credits to enhanced oil recovery -- amounted to a "significant...
The Canadian government will likely look at selling equity in the state-owned Trans Mountain oil pipeline only after steps are taken over the next few years to maximize its output, Energy Minister Tim Hodgson said. The government purchased the pipeline in 2018 to ensure a major expansion was built. The project ballooned in cost to about $34 billion, but it...
Prime Minister Mark Carney shuffled his cabinet on Monday following the resignation of Steven Guilbeault last week, and has brought back a familiar face from the Justin Trudeau era. Marc Miller, who last served as the minister of immigration under Trudeau, has been appointed as minister of Canadian identity and culture and minister responsible for official languages. Miller was first...
Trudeau-era environment minister left Carney cabinet last week. Canada will not be able to achieve the climate change targets it has set given recent decisions by Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government, warns former Liberal minister Steven Guilbeault. Speaking on Radio-Canada's Tout le monde en parle, Guilbeault said recent decisions by Carney’s government, such as last week’s memorandum of understanding with...
Algoma Steel received $500 million in government loans to protect it from U.S. tariffs. Algoma Steel says it has issued 1,000 layoff notices to workers at its plant in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont. "As part of the closure of its blast furnace and coke making operations, Algoma has made the difficult decision to issue approximately 1,000 layoff notices today, effective...
A new Canadian Army equipment program that could be worth almost $500 million is designed to select only U.S.-provided equipment, despite claims by Prime Minister Mark Carney the military will be reducing purchases of American systems. The Joint Fires Modernization program will cost between $250 million and $499 million and see the acquisition of hardware and software to enable the...
Frustrated grassroots Conservatives are mounting efforts to wrest control of candidate nominations away from senior party officials, as members prepare for a national convention where Pierre Poilievre is set to face a critical test of his leadership. The Conservative party’s national convention will be held at the end of January in Calgary, near the rural riding where Poilievre clinched his...
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet and senior ministerial staff ranks include a significant number of women, but there aren’t any women in the prime minister’s inner circle on whom he relies for top-level, day-to-day strategic advice, say some Liberals. “It’s not as though there aren’t any women with senior-ish titles in the Prime Minister’s Office—of course [there are],” said Supriya...
When trying to image outcomes of US presidential elections, it’s normal to focus on a list of about 6-7swing states and more or less ignore the rest. What happens in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan pretty much decide which candidate gets the required number of electoral college votes and moves into the White House. But a lot...
The Prime Minister’s Office said the cabinet shuffle would bring only small changes to Carney’s front bench. Prime Minister Mark Carney is set to reveal how he will distribute the portfolios previously held by Steven Guilbeault, who resigned from cabinet last week after the federal government reached an agreement with Alberta that could pave the path for a new pipeline...
Manufacturers praise Trump for signing agreement in his first term, urge him to preserve it. As Canada’s trade deal with the U.S. and Mexico faces a crucial review, many U.S. industries are urging the Trump administration to preserve the agreement and to stop putting tariffs on imports from its northern and southern neighbours. Public hearings are scheduled this week in...
Alberta’s Official Opposition on Sunday said a Globe and Mail story documenting ties between Premier Danielle Smith’s government and an Edmonton businessman underscore the need for a public inquiry into the province’s health care procurement practices. New Democratic Party Leader Naheed Nenshi said The Globe’s investigation detailing links between executive Sam Mraiche and Ms. Smith’s government reveal “deep, deep, deep”...
Diana Donat looks at the construction site where her house once stood, across the street from her restaurant. She’s not sure whether some of the construction workers she sees are here on temporary visas.
B.C. Premier David Eby – who has vehemently opposed Alberta’s pursuit for a new bitumen pipeline to the West Coast – says he is open to a pipeline project in his province if the tanker ban remains in place. “No, I think we can have those conversations,” Eby said in an interview with CTV Question Period airing Sunday, when asked...
Julie Dabrusin says key policies like clean electricity regulations remain in place. Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin is pushing back against claims from Steven Guilbeault, who resigned from cabinet this week over Ottawa’s memorandum of understanding with Alberta and said Canada is dismantling several pieces of its climate plan. “I really respectfully disagree with [Guilbeault] on his characterization...
The head of the United Nations' HIV/AIDS program is urging Prime Minister Mark Carney to reverse his government's planned cuts to foreign aid and global health funding. "My message to Prime Minister Carney, to Canada, and to all the other donors is, stay the course," UNAIDS executive director Winnie Byanyima told The Canadian Press on the sidelines of last week's...
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith walked a thin line at this weekend’s annual United Conservative convention trying to appease the pro-independence grassroots base of her party while simultaneously touting a new energy deal with her frequent foes in Ottawa. While the she faced loud boos attempting to sell her energy accord with Prime Minister Mark Carney on Friday, and a combination...
Ottawa offers voluntary program on banned assault-style guns. The Alberta government will introduce a motion this week under provincial sovereignty legislation to defy the federal gun buy-back program, Premier Danielle Smith announced Saturday during a speech at the United Conservative Party’s annual general meeting. Smith said the motion, if passed by the legislature, will instruct “provincial entities,” including municipalities and...
Twelve hundred people were on their feet in Calgary yesterday applauding Mark Carney and Danielle Smith for the deal they signed that could lead to a new pipeline to move Alberta oil to markets. But there was a cost too ...Carney lost a minister, and the BC government and indigenous groups are more than a little bit upset. What happens...
Following the historic signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Ottawa and Alberta to lay the groundwork for a new oil pipeline — and the resignation of longtime cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault over the issue — Environment and Climate and Change Minister Julie Dabrusin insists the federal government is not rolling back its climate policy. On Thursday, Prime Minister...
This week the Pentagon issued secret contracts to American weapons-makers to build the first generation of space weapons. The contracts have not yet been publicly announced, however sources told Reuters that the list includes Lockheed Martin and Northup Grumman – two of the biggest defence companies in the world.
DETROIT (AP) -- Two conservative political operatives were sentenced to probation Monday for a scheme to discourage Black Detroit voters from voting by mail in the 2020 presidential election, the last court hearing in a multistate effort to blast thousands of robocalls.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Monday that three of his New York offices were targeted with emailed bomb threats from an email address alleging the "2020 election was rigged."
Lawmakers from both parties said Sunday they support congressional reviews of U.S. military strikes against vessels suspected of smuggling drugs in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, citing a published report that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued a verbal order for all crew members to be killed as part of a Sept. 2 attack.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration announced Friday it is halting all asylum decisions in the wake of the National Guard shooting in Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Costco is joining other companies that aren't waiting to see whether the Supreme Court strikes down President Donald Trump's most sweeping import taxes. They're going to court to demand refunds on the tariffs they've paid.
Outlets that reach millions of news consumers are being denied access to rare briefings by Pentagon officials this week -- sessions that are being held instead for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's hand-picked media organizations.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports days after a shooting near the White House that left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Charges against the man accused of shooting two National Guard members have been upgraded to first-degree murder after one of the soldiers died, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia announced Friday, while investigators continue to seek a motive and the U.S. government announced a halt to all asylum decisions.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Charges against the man accused of shooting two National Guard members have been upgraded to first-degree murder after one of the soldiers died, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia announced Friday.
In September of 2023, Michael Miltenberger, former deputy premier of the Northwest Territories, spoke at a Massey College-Forum for Leadership on Water conference called The Future of Freshwater. Miltenberger described how just weeks earlier, wildfire had forced the evacuation of his own community of Fort Smith (yes, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s hometown). As he prepared to escape the Wood Buffalo...
Canadians rarely stop to think that everything they own, from their homes and savings to their farms, vehicles, and small businesses, exist only so long as government allows it. A single regulation, order, or policy change can erase a lifetime of work, uproot families, and disrupt lives. Indeed, across Canada, property owners have watched livelihoods disappear overnight through land-use restrictions...
When Canada legalized cannabis in 2018, it launched a national experiment in health, safety, and economic policy. Seven years later, the results are clear enough to measure and complex enough to debate. Cannabis has moved from the margins of public life and to the mainstream of the Canadian economy. Yet much of the federal framework that governs it remains frozen...
A collection of SubStack publishing within Canadian public affairs.
I went back to Ottawa this week. It’s been a while since I’ve been in the nation’s capital to talk about peace issues, so when the Senate of Canada contacted me, I had to go. Prime Minister Carney’s Budget 2025 is making its way through Parliament, and the Senate’s Committee on National Security, Defence and Veterans Affairs asked me and...
Pierre Poilievre’s recent video attacking Mark Carney could have been a strong argument. If not for the air quotes. When he says Carney promised he could “handle Trump” and “negotiate a win,” his fingers twitch into the familiar inverted-comma gesture. It’s a tiny move, but it says everything. Air quotes don’t persuade; they perform. They turn conviction into commentary and...
As Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “Donald Trump wants to break us so America can own us.” But what if Trump decides to use military power along with economic tariffs? An Arctic expert writing in The Globe and Mail says we shouldn’t think of tanks or helicopters streaming over the border. Instead, an American show-of-force could begin with a single...
David Herle, Scott Reid, Jordan Leichnitz, and Kory Teneycke provide insights on the latest in Canadian politics.
The Trump administration has been lambasted for its proposed peace plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war given its generosity to Moscow — yet Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he’s willing to build from it. As Matthew Bondy discusses with Brian, Kyiv has few options but to encourage America to step in and end the brutal, nearly four-year war, despite the deal’s...
Alright, you curiouser and curiouser Herle Burly-ites! So, about 8 weeks ago I started in on a book, and I could NOT put it down. What makes “The Coutts Diaries: Power, Politics and Pierre Trudeau” so compelling, is that it is what it says it is ... a written diary of exactly what when on in the backrooms of power...
Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith signed an agreement this week paving a path for an oil pipeline — a move that ended up costing Carney a cabinet minister and key ally in Quebec. Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc joins The House to discuss Steven Guilbeault’s resignation and how Canada plans to address the frustrated B.C. government...
